Councils have rejected claims that they are disproportionately issuing bin fines, after a survey revealed that over 3000 fines were issued in 2011/12.
The survey, carried out by the anti-regulation campaign group Manifesto Club and published in the Telegraph, claimed that councils have used fines as a way of communicating rubbish collection policies to residents.
Manifesto Club published the report as part of its campaign against on-the-spot fines for offences such as bin lids being left open, waste being put in the wrong container or being left out too early.
The group is calling for the government to limit council powers to issue bin fines, despite ministers already cutting the top level of fines that councils can issue earlier this year (see letsrecycle.com story).
Under Defras changes, councils are still able to issue fixed penalties but only if they can prove that a household is causing harm to the local amenity. Critics of the move claimed that cutting local authority powers to issue fines could undermine their function as a deterrant.
The survey, which details the number of waste receptacle fines issued by local authorities over the 2011/12 period obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, found that a total of 3197 fines were issued over the course of the 12 months. But, the survey does acknowledge that 5000 less fines were issued by councils than during the preceding year.
LGA
However, according to the Local Government Association (LGA) which represents councils in the UK, fines are only used in a very small number of exceptional cases and are one of a number of tools used by local authorities to persuade residents to comply with waste regulations.
Councillor Mike Jones, chairman of the LGAs Environment Board, said: Councils collect waste from 22 million homes with bin rounds virtually every week of the year. These figures show that fewer than three in every million collections result in a fine.
There is a very small number of irresponsible householders who persistently leave rubbish piling up in the street, creating an unpleasant mess and a potential health hazard for their neighbours.
In these extreme and exceptional cases, where repeated attempts to help and guide them are ignored, councils need effective and proportionate powers to ensure the inconsiderate actions of a minority are not allowed to ruin neighbourhoods and jeopardise efforts to avoid expensive EU fines by diverting waste from going to landfill.
“Fines are only ever issued as an absolute last resort.
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